Vinyl Care & Dust Removal, How to make vinyl sound good?? Options

[ViPER1313]

After reading the thread found here [ http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....t=7953&hl=vinyl ] I was blown away by the recording quality of the sandra.mpc sample. How do you get vinyl to sound so dust free and rich? All the vinyl that I have recorded has at least some dust crackling in the background, and some recordings sound extremely harsh (especially in the vocals - almost like clipping except there is no clipping going on.....) Do you use digital correction? Filtering? I use the following equipment -

Marantz TT1060 Turntable w/ unknown cartridge/needle (the cartridge/needle are replacements, less than 6 months old - I have no idea what brand / model they are, but they seem to be of decent quality.)

Marantz PM325 Receiver

SB-Live soundcard fed from phono -> receiver -> line-in (This is not the weak link I am concerned over - I know it has crappy quality recording, but I am worried about the record playback quality itself . I have also tried phono -> line-in directly and was not impressed with the quality at all.)

The cartridge seems to have good frequency response and be of decent quality, but I can not get rid of dust no matter what I try - I have a diskwasher and have tried a 1:5 alcohol/water solution, but the dust persists. Any tips?

[Pio2001]

Bass was probably set to +0db, midrange was set to +2db and treble was probably set to about +8db on the PM325

The tone settings on the ampli should not affect the tape output that you must have used to record the records.

The Sansui cost <10% of the price (I guess), yet gave ~75% of the quality

I'm not surprised. I think too, that the cartridge plays the most important role in the sound. The stylus shape seems to have little influence. I posted long ago some samples comparing the spherical and the stereohedron ("super elliptical") stylii for the same cartridge. There was a bit more treble on the stereohedron one.

You've probably said (and I've probably asked) before, but what equipment to you use Pio?

I use a Technics SL-3100 turntable. No idea about the original price it was sold. I got it second hand for 213 euros. There were SL-1200 second hand too, for 183 euros, with it.
It's from the standard direct drive series of Technics. The famous SL-1200 being from the above series : direct drive with crystal clock. There is no mention of it in any catalog or website about Technics turntables...
The cartridge is a Stanton Trackmaster EL. Like the Technics SL-1200, that is sold about 460 euros, but with zero margin for the reseller, the Trackmaster cartrige saw its price vary much. I saw it for 221 euros on an old Gemini catalog, but its price has fallen down quickly. It must have been around 160 euros (I myself bought the Trackmaster AL around 160 euros itself, and the EL stylus 84 euros alone, but the prices were high at this time). Thus it is a high end DJ cartridge.
The amp is the phono option of the Arcam Diva A85, an audiophile ampli (1200 €). Some of the samples must have been recorded with the Cyrus One phono input, another audiophile ampli (488 euros). There is quite no audible differences between these phono inputs and another audiophile phono preamp that I tried long ago.
The ADC is a Sony DTC 55ES DAT deck. Then optical out, then Fostex opt/coax converter, then big coax cable, then Marian Marc 2 digital input.